BRIDGEWATER — A Bridgewater couple was sentenced to nearly four years prison and $1.3 million in restitution on charges of failing to pay employment taxes.

James and Therese DeMuro, both of Bridgewater, were each sentenced to 44 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, by U.S. District Court Judge Anne. E. Thompson, according to a Nov. 30 release from the U.S. Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service. Thompson also ordered the DeMuros to pay restitution of $1,337,952.12 to the IRS, the release said.

A jury in November 2010 convicted the DeMuros of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and 21 counts of willfully failing to pay employment taxes, and on April 23, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed the convictions but remanded the case for resentencing, the release said.

The DeMuros co-owned and operated an engineering and surveying firm called TAD Associates LLC, doing business as DeMuro Associates, according to the indictment and evidence introduced during the trial, the release said. From 2002 through 2008, the couple withheld employment taxes from their employees’ paychecks but failed to pay more than $546,000 in taxes to the IRS, the release said. The DeMuros also withheld funds from their employees’ pay checks for health insurance, child support and retirement savings accounts and failed to pay these funds over to the appropriate entities, the release said.

Additionally, the DeMuros operated under a prior entity name DA Resources Inc., which they ceased operating in order to thwart the ability of the IRS to collect unpaid employment taxes related to that entity, the statement said.

Evidence was also introduced at trial that the DeMuros converted the withheld funds for their business and personal use, including more than $280,000 in purchases from QVC, Home Shopping Network and Jewelry Television.

Kathryn Keneally, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Tax Division, credited the IRS Criminal Investigation special agents who investigated the case as well as Tax Division trial attorneys Tino M. Lisella and Jessica Moran, who prosecuted the case, and U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Paul J. Fishman and his entire office for their assistance, the release said.

For at least nine years, the DeMuros ran an annual Haunted House at their DeMuro Associates headquarters at 24 West Cliff St. in Somerville, to benefit the Somerset County United Way, the Hunterdon Democrat reported.